I guess that was my thought on it exactly Jared, in that his word is taken with a lot of weight behind it, yet it is a regional observation and I'd say his region is the exception on this one, and not the rule from what I hear.
Antilles is a figure I would buy another couple of if I saw them, but damned if I can't find one in my area... And I was out last night thinking about this and I honestly didn't see many Dodonna's at all either. I saw one on a HORRIBLY trashed card at a Target. That's it.
At the same Target sits Hoth leftovers (mostly soldier and R-3PO) among some other 03/04 stuff, and the odd OTC remnant. Not much.
It's like the guy who sees dozens of VOTC and says they're pegwarmers. Maybe for him, but even the ANH wave in my area moves... Slowly at WM's where it was overordered, but ya know I don't see many Luke's or Leia's at all anymore, and Han/Ben is dwindling.
ROTJ comes into stores (Target/TRU) by several cases at a time, and they always sell out. I saw a LOT of Boba Fett last night though, but the sheer # of him implied to me that EVERY other figure in the case blew out of there, and he seems to be selling too.
I don't think Star Wars has jumped in popularity all of a sudden... The blitz surrounding the DVD's wasn't exactly awe inspiring or anything. I just think good figures are proving that they WILL sell. Be it $10 pricetags or not.
And I guess trashing the Antilles figure, which ironically was an old review of mine that we just got posted, and one in which I praised the figure quite a bit (even with his few drawbacks), just happened to be an instance where it stuck out to me. I just didn't agree with the sentiment at all. To me, he was a figure LONG overdue and I think he's done very well at retail.